


Heritability

by Kahvi, Roadsterguy



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Trans Character, Trans Loki (Marvel), Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:29:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23164762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kahvi/pseuds/Kahvi, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roadsterguy/pseuds/Roadsterguy
Summary: Life delights in diversity, as Frigga would say, but for Thor and Loki, growing up, their differences feel like something altogether more magical.
Relationships: Loki & Thor (Marvel), Loki/Thor (Marvel)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	Heritability

Thor kept wailing, throwing himself around her legs as she walked. "Little one," Frigga soothed, stroking his sun-soft hair. So many tears! He had his father's strength of feeling, this boy, though the feelings themselves were rather different. "You must sleep now. What will your brother think, when he comes back and you are too tired to greet him?" 

The boy gasped up at her, bright eyes full of shock so genuine she nearly laughed. "I won't! I wouldn't! I miss him!" Thor's words melted into wails and sniffles, and Frigga took pity on him, lifting him into a hug. He was so tall already, so broad across his young shoulders that she could not do this in a year, perhaps less. Her big, strong, helpless boy. 

"Come to bed, little one. Your brother will be safe." 

"He's got a fever," Thor muttered, perhaps remembering his own pain. "That hurts." 

"Yes, but he's being taken care of." Frigga sat him down on the bed, and pulled off his hastily donned tunic. It was back to front and inside out, and one of the seams had ripped. He had been in a hurry as he ran. "That's the healer's job. Now you have to do _your_ job, and rest." 

"My face hurts." He twitched his nose, frowning.

"No wonder, the way you've been going on! " She settled him back against the soft downs, pulling the furs over him. "Now, will you promise not to go looking for him again?"

Sullenly, Thor nodded. "Wasn't trying."

"Well then, why were you in the hall, child?"

"You get mad when I cry. So I ran away." 

Frigga glanced out the window to the courtyard. Odin would be there, across the way, deep in talks with his council. Did he cast such a long shadow? "When have I said so? Of course you must cry, if you are sad."

He reached out for her, and they sat that way a while, until the timed lights grew dimmer. 

"You must sleep," she said again, "as must your mother."

"Is Loki sleeping?" 

"Yes." In a manner of speaking. The induced coma would not be restful. "Brave boys, the both of you." 

"We're brothers." Thor yawned. 

"Yes, dear one."

"Even though he doesn't look like me."

"And even though you don't look like him, yes." Frigga stroked his hair. She could feel him fretting, brow furrowing under her fingers. "What are you thinking about, sunshine?"

"Is Loki sick... is he sick because he doesn't look like me and father?"

She knew, she knew at once what he meant, but the shadows were not quite so deep, the room not quite as cold as to make her dwell on it. "He is sick because he did not listen, and sat outside in the rain overlong."

"He likes the water lizards."

"Yes, but he's not one of them. Now he's got a brain fever, and you should take heed. Listen to your mother." She kissed the top of his head, hoping that was all, but:

"Can't they fix him, mother?" Those earnest eyes again. Blue stars. "Like they did Embla? She didn't use to look like a girl, but they fixed her."

What went on in that bright head of his? Frigga forced a smile. "She was always a girl, Thor."

"I know that!" He huffed, scornfully. "But why can't they, mummy?"

An older name, a sign he... well, a sign they both should be sleeping. "Your brother is different in a lot of ways. Like you said. What worked for Embla, what works for everyone who want to look like how they feel inside, doesn't quite work on him." Frigga glanced out the window. Even now, she trusted the boy's life to her personal healer. She was good, but any physician good enough to work for the royal family would quickly see through even her disguises. To the life-stuff that was almost, but not entirely Aesir. Stubborn, unyielding, made to survive through stamina, not adaptation. Perhaps that's why he favored his illusions so; they allowed him what his body did not. "He'll be all right," she said, and as she realized the degree to which she meant it, Frigga felt Thor settle in her arms.

Long nights. Long shadows. But one of her boys were light, and one thrived in darkness. _Yes_ , she thought. _Yes_.

* * *

“Is father a cuckold?”

  
The word was inappropriate for a boy so young, but what else was new, when it came to Loki? “Loki.” He looked up at her on hearing her stern tone, from where he sat on the floor, cross-legged, his pale face thoughtful. “Don’t use such language.”

“Other boys use it.” He shrugged, his long, nervous fingers picking at each other. A habit she saw in the mirror. Odd, that he had so much in common with her, considering…

“They are not Princes. They are not _you_. You’re a good boy, Loki, you don’t need to resort to such silly…”

“So I’m father’s child?” he interrupted, a rare disrespect to her.

With that phrasing, it was easy to answer the boy truthfully. “Yes.” Father’s child. Oddly enough, considering that Odin did not feel _paternal_ towards Loki – and that Loki felt so much like Frigga’s offspring, even though he was not of her body… but he had Odin’s quick temper, even if not Odin’s way of displaying it.

Loki nodded, thoughtfully. “I don’t look like him. Thor looks like him.”

“Now, remember your lessons, love. Remember when Freki had puppies, and they were piebald? Life delights in diversity, and dies in stagnation. You are different from your parents,” so very different, “and a joy in your difference.”

“So I’m a piebald puppy?” Loki frowned.

Frigga laughed and picked him up, swinging him around. So light, this one; it was little effort to raise his lanky body in the air, his lightness a match to his slender form, his face unlined and unbearded at the age when Thor was shaving daily, almost delicate in appearance – and a deceiving appearance it was. He had venom in him, plenty of it, and would that she could draw it out! At least he was unable to keep his laughter and smile inside at this treatment. “If you will! My little puppy.” She kissed him.

He put his arms around Frigga’s neck. “The Healers say this is as much man as I will ever be.”

She pulled him more tightly to her. Oh, Loki. A small man amongst burly warriors, a sarcastic man amongst blunt-spoken, a dirk amongst battle-axes, lush folds where others dangled. “It’s man enough, my love.”

“Not like Thor. He’s _so_ much more manly. All look up to him. Will I ever be as big and strong as he?”

She patted Loki on the back. She had told herself that she would never lie to the boy – alas, though, lies of omission came too easily. “No, my dear. He will protect you with the strength of his arm. You must protect him with your mind.”

“Does he love me?” Loki’s voice was oddly uncertain. “I want him to love me, mother.”

How could Loki doubt that? Well, insecurity was hardly a unique inheritance. “If he has any sense,” she kissed his forehead, “he does.”

* * *

The little bundle squirmed in his arms, the anger, the outrage in her shrieks so bold and arrogant that Odin could not but laugh. Her skin was faded now, entirely, no longer shading back to pale blue when emotion got the better of her, which was often enough. Good. She would learn control, and have much use for it in all ways. Jotun were skilled at seiðr, manipulating the fabric of reality with cunning and art, and Odin had high hopes for his youngest. What better spoils of war than this? He clicked his tongue at her, and she stopped at once, her tiny head at an angle, listening intently. Eyes the color of her old skin grew thoughtful, then startled, when he laughed.

"You are in love." Frigga strode across the room, back straight as the sword she weilded better than he ever would. Thor took after her in that, and good, too. Whatever the bards said, Odin had never been as skilled a warrior as he was a general. She looked down at the child, just barely smiling. But her eyes glittered, when she turned them back to him. "Have you found a name for him?"

"Him?" So small, so clearly... well.

Frigga snorted. " _Really_ , husband? You doubt me in this? It's so thick in the fabric of his being that I'm surprised you don't notice it yourself."

No. He knew better than to doubt his wife in anything, least of all _this_ knowing. Thoughts and minds and bodies, that was her domain. "We must find a healer then. As soon as possible." The younger, the better, so they said, for this particular birth defect. "You have someone you trust?"

Only a slight hesitation. "Yes. And his name?"

"I had considered Loki." Good for a man or a woman, that.

"Web-maker?" He could not make her face out. She had moved to the window, looking out over the courtyard. "Yes... I suppose." When she faced them again, her smile was genuine. "He is well matched to his brother."

One could already tell, yes. Slight in frame, dark hair, fine features. Of course, had it not been a boy, one might imagine, later on... the dynasty would be stronger with a match made in familiar circumstances. Interbreeding should be possible, from what the life-crafters told him. Ah, well. It was better this way, Odin mused, lifting his youngest to the heavens, turning his shrieks to delight. He had little luck with daughters.


End file.
